*Update: BioWare has sent out an official press release with more details. According to the press release, Dragon Age II is slated to arrive March 2011. The other major detail in the press release is that gamers are no longer able to roll a custom character like in the first Dragon Age. Instead, BioWare is going the Mass Effect route, forcing gamers to play as Hawke, a human (male or female your choice) “refugee who rises to power to become the single most important character in the world of Dragon Age. Known to be a survivor of the Blight and the Champion of Kirkwall, the legend around Hawke’s rise to power is shrouded in myth and rumor.”

Today BioWare unsurprisingly announced that it has been working on Dragon Age II, a full fledged sequel to last year’s critically and commercially acclaimed RPG Dragon Age: Origins.

According to the announcement, DAII will hit the Xbox 360, PS3 and PC at an undisclosed date in the future. The game is said to feature “a new hero, a different part of the world, and a ton of surprising improvements that will shed even more light on the lore of the Dragon Age universe.”
Other key features include:

Embark upon an all-new adventure that takes place across an entire decade and shapes itself around every decision you make.

Determine your rise to power from a destitute refugee to the revered champion of the land.

Think like a general and fight like a Spartan with dynamic new combat mechanics that put you right in the heart of battle whether you are a mage, rogue, or warrior.

Go deeper into the world of Dragon Age with an entirely new cinematic experience that grabs hold of you from the beginning and never lets go.

Discover a whole realm rendered in stunning detail with updated graphics and a new visual style.

Those of you looking to see the game in action will have to wait until EA’s Gamescom 2010 press conference on August 17. BioWare has promised that it will unveil a trailer at the event.

While I did play the first Dragon Age for a couple of weeks, I never got around to finishing it. That said, I’m happy to see that DAII is coming out, for no other reason that it will motivate me to finally getting around to finishing the first game.

What do you guys think about this? Does this news come as a surprise to you? Are you excited to learn more about the Dragon Age world? Where do you think the plot is heading? Let us know what you think by dropping a comment below.

From what I can tell they are actually changing these a bit for this game and it may not be as “traditional” as DA:O was. Now the question is whether that is a good or bad thing and we obviously can’t tell yet. The online java game art style isn’t doing it for me though.